Confusing Monitor Problem

I shot an indoor picture of a musical jam session beside a hot wood stove and then viewed it on my computer monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 730b). I was VERY disappointed with the focus, and confused about what I had done wrong. I took the card to Wal-Mart and printed out an 8 X 10 so I would have something to show to the camera repair shop. To my surprise, the focus in the print was great! Now I am really confused. Why does my monitor show photos as having a soft focus, but when I have the image printed, it is nice and sharp? Does my monitor need adjusting? Do I need to replace my monitor? If so, what make and model is best?

What software are you using to open the image?

Also most labs at places like walmart do automatic 'corrections' to photo's as a default. So you might want to ask them to do it again but without any adjustments and compare.

What camera are you using? As Medley asked, what software is showing it 'to be out of focus'? Are you looking at the image full screen, resized, cropped or at actual size?

Can you post (probably to the PR gallery and then link here) a full size (1.5M+ and actual resolution) of what you find objectionable? Even crop out a section from the full image, but don't resize it and post it.

There's one other possibility since it printed well. That monitor may not be showing you what you think it is. LCD monitors when being used to display photos need to be set at their native resolution. That is the resolution that they are 'rated' for or listed on the box.
Windows (and the Monitor software possibly) will let the user change the display, but for photos this does not work the same with a LCD as with a CRT display.

Let us know how else we can help. That your photo printed out well indicates something other than the Camera is most likely the problem. Nothing is going to fix a bad file and make it printable.